Welcome to ‘In A Vase On Monday’ when I am linking up with Cathy at Rambling In The Garden to join her challenge to fill a vase for the house from the garden every week.
This week I have two vases to share. I have been thinking about what to make for today’s post over the weekend and ended up with a choice of two flowers that I did not want to combine together – in the end I decided it would be easier to make two vases than to make a decision!
My first vase of the day is very simple – just a handful of Forget-me-nots placed in a footed bowl. Forget-me-nots (proper name Myosotis sylvatica), flower very early in the spring with a fragile blue flower. A little research revealed a German legend, which says that after God had named all the plants, a tiny unnamed one cried out “Forget-me-not, O Lord!”. God replied ‘That shall be your name”.
In the language of flowers Forget-me-nots mean enduring true love, faithfulness, memories and, of course, do not forget me. I can imagine a Victorian gentleman presenting his love with a posy of Forget-me-nots before heading off to war or on a Grand Tour.
In the first spring that we were here there were no Forget-me-nots in the garden. Last year I put that right when a friend offered to let me take some small plants from her garden. They all transplanted well and flowered happily. As a result this year I have Forget-me-nots popping up all over the garden. Whilst I know from past experience that they can become a weed, I am happy to let them self seed and then weed out the surplus as necessary. Like poppies there are few places they can settle in the garden where I would not want them anyway.
I have never cut them for a vase before so it will be interesting to see how long these fragile flowers last inside.
My second offering is a homage to my favourite scent of the season. Viburnum carlesii is in flower this week and I cannot resist stepping out into the garden to sniff that wonderful seductive scent at every opportunity! I have a huge bushy shrub – easily 10 ft tall and as wide growing in a very soggy part of the garden. Its roots are under water for a good part of every winter and throughout the summer it is shaded by a huge lime tree. Despite these poor conditions it flowers profusely every spring. It was growing in this spot long before we moved here and it is a shrub I had not come across before. Now I regard it as an essential part of spring – its flowering season is something that I anticipate for many weeks before the flowers arrive. In previous years I have just enjoyed the scent outside, but I noticed Libby at An Eye For Detail had arranged a few stems in a vase last week, so I decided I would do the same.
My small stone urn proved to be a good option. I needed to use something other than glass as the twiggy stems are not particularly attractive. To provide a cushion for the viburnum flowers to rest on I cut sprigs of Choisya terrnata which is just coming into flower. To give the arrangement a spring like freshness I used some long stems of an as yet unidentified variety of spirea.
I have a fake moss ring which fits on top of the urn perfectly and provides a good support for the arrangement.
I could not resist adding a few flower heads to a small crystal vase. You can clearly see the beautiful pink buds which open to white flowers. These are quite long lasting on the bush, although I do not have high hopes that they will survive well indoors. The scent is so lovely in the room though that it is worth bringing them in even if the arrangement has a fleeting life.
Finally a view of my reading chair next to the window, with the scent of the arrangement filling the air. I have a book which I am keen to finish tonight – it is called ‘The Misbegotten’ by Katherine Webb. Although recently published this has something of the Victorian gothic novel about it and and I am determined to to find the answers to the mysteries before going to sleep!
I hope you have enjoyed this weeks vases and that you will pop over to Cathy’s blog to see what she and the others have made this week.
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You inspire me to “cut” my flowers…I will not be afraid this year to do it! 🙂 Lovely post + photos that inspire one to bring flowers indoors. Saturday we made it into the 80’s which is too hot for us in spring, and now we have snow flurries today. Mother nature is just playing with us this year-lol
I love the color blue in the garden, it is so rare and precious:-)
Thank you Robbie – I have had a lot of blue so far this year. First the iris, then muscari and anemone Mr Fokker, now the Forget-me-nots and just coming into flower are the perennial cornflowers that are very blue. I feel very lucky as blue is such a lovely colour in a flower. I hope your weather settles down soon – we had a difficult winter and early spring last year – you can never know what the weather has in store for you!
I absolutely love the smell of viburnum. We have some old bottles (wellywoman collects them) and the Virburnum tend to go into those as ours is of the less clump forming variety compared to yours.
There are so many varieties of viburnum and I love them all! I think we are all collecting old bottles these days – in my youth we used them as candle holders. Now we have tea lights and the bottles have been reinvented as vases – it is good that they keep being re used!
the little moss ring is inspired! love the Forget Me Not legend too. Yet another sweet post!
Thank you Bethany – I liked the legend too – I am always intrigued to find out the stories behind the common name for flowers.
Both designs are eloquent Julie. I adore your Forget-me-nots. They’re on my list of things to add to my garden. And the viburnum seems perfectly suited to that white urn. The moss is a nice touch.
Thank you Susie – I think forget-me-nots are easy to establish from a packet of seed and I am sure you will love them next year!
This is so lovely and really encouraging, I love the little vase of forget me nots. Enjoy your book, it sounds a good read.
Thank you Julie – the book was well worth reading, although I had to get up early today to finish it as I could not keep my eyes open long enough on Monday night.
I never thought of bringing the Viburnum into the house but I like the idea of having that lovely fragrance inside. It looks lovely in your vase.
Forgetmenots are great for putting themselves all over and lightening up your garden with blue. Once you have them you will have them always. They look cute in a little vase.
Thank you Chloris – I think the scent is stronger in the room today than it was yesterday – the flowers in the urn are starting to fade a little though. Interestingly the flowers on a very short stem in the little vase still look completely fresh.
Julie: Thank you for the link! My two bushes are just about over: a few flowers left on them but the scent is fading very fast! I did find that the cut stems do not last long in a vase. I tried pounding the ends just a bit but even that didn’t help. Ah well, ’til next year!
You are welcome Libby! It is sad that your viburnum is over so quickly. I usually get a few weeks out of mine, but our temperatures are probably cooler than yours. After two days the flowers on a very short stem in the small vase are lasting the best. The others are beginning to fade. I will check how many days they last for – perhaps the short stem is allowing the water to travel to the flower more easily.
Both arrangements are beautiful! I have a particular affection for forget-me-nots, although I’ve never been successful at growing them in my own garden, at least not for long. The dry winds that sweep through my current garden almost daily, even during our so-called “cool season” can wither them in an instant and water-hungry plants tend to get banned here.
It is a sad fact of gardening that we can’t all grow everything – I was very jealous of your beautiful alstroemeria yesterday!
Your urn looks very formal and grand! I share your love of Viburnum burkwoodii and carlesii, I have both; they are fleeting joys even in the garden so I usually cut some to bring inside, but I like the way you have displayed them better than when I mix them with other flowers in a vase. I’m afraid I treat forget-me-nots as a weed but I think the ones growing here may be slightly different anyway, the flowers seem much smaller.
Thank you Christina – sometimes the fleeting joys are the high points of the gardening year! I still have viburnum opulus ‘Roseum’ to come – I think that is my favourite of all the viburnum flowers. My bush is only two years old though so I think it will be a while before I can pick from it.
I too am hoping to have forget-me-nots popping up around the garden, as I was pleased to find some just appearing for the first time last year – the simple glass of them is delightful and such an encouragement to me and others, showing how effective ‘simple’ can be. The urn is, of course, perfect for your heavier sprigs – it will be interesting to see how long the woodier stems last when cut. I cut a tiny sprig of apple blossom yesterday but decided it wasn’t needed so it is in my reject pot and I am waiting to see if the buds still open. Thanks for the support and for joining in.
Let me know if the buds open Cathy – I have read that dipping a flowering branch in boiling water for a few seconds will encourage it to open but I haven’t tested this suggestion. I am struggling to find some bare branches for our easter tree – usually I have lots of choice but this year all my flowering shrubs already have leaves on. I am going to investigate the hawthorn at the end of the garden tomorrow.
What a shame you have to look for bare branches when most are leafing up nicely now! Hope you find something 😉
I like to use bare branches because they last longer – leaves often dry up quickly in a vase and make the whole thing look messy. I have settled on birch and am going to cut it tomorrow.
Julie, the forget me nots are so pretty, nature always knows best. x x
Thank you Beth – you are so right!
Both vases are beautiful, Julie, but the forget-me-nots are so endearing, like, like, like!!! Mind you, I should really do something about this myosotis-free garden of mine. I just have Brunnera but they’re delightful as well. Maybe I can get hold of some seeds some day…they don’t seem to be en vogue in this part of France.
Brunnera is very pretty but doesn’t create the mass of blue that forget-me-nots do. E mail me if you would like some seed – I am sure we could arrange something.
Lovely! The forget-me-nots look so pretty in your glass bowl. I wish I had enough to cut, but they just don’t seem to seed around in my garden! I think the moss ring is an excellent idea – it looks real anyway. Most of my vases seem to have such wide tops, so I shall have to bear that in mind.
Thank you Cathy – forget-me-nots can be such a weed in the UK – it is surprising to hear that there are places where they don’t self seed easily. I know what you mean about wide rimmed vases – they can be very difficult to use. One trick I have learnt is to put chicken wire over the top of the vase and feed the stems through that (be careful not to scratch your vase with the wire though). Another option is to create a grid with florists tape.
Thanks for the tips Julie. 😀
Julie,
Whenever I read about your garden it is like I am walking in a dream land. As I sm a tropical Gardner Most of the flowers are very new to me.I would have read or seen the pictures only.as for today’s I have never seen in reality.Even the mixed bouquet I buy I don’t know much of it. But one aspect is very sure I am beginning to learn about all the flowers you have mentioned so far.They are all fresh in my mind and I am sure in future I will be able to know their names and other aspects of flowers you mentioned in your posts. And Julie lovely flowers and arrangement. Enjoyed reading it.